Avalanche Are on Familiar Terrain

1999-04-30 04:00:00 PDT Denver -- Much like the Giants, the Avalanche are grinding through the final few games in an old, outmoded setting, awaiting the promised land of posh new digs next season.

Like it or not, McNichols Sports Arena is still home ice. Yet familiarity didn't pay off in Wednesday night's 4-2 NHL Western Conference quarterfinal loss to the Sharks. And it hasn't provided much of an edge for Colorado in past playoffs, either.

Naturally, Wednesday's outcome evoked last season's origami act, when the Avalanche carried a 3-1 series lead over Edmonton back home, only to see the Oilers crush them in consecutive wins in Denver. Colorado was knocked out of the playoffs, way too soon.

"We don't live in the past," Avs coach Bob Hartley said. "Those things, I'm certain many players in this organization learned a lesson from it, and now we have to move on."

Moving on means capturing that same sense of urgency the Sharks maintained in Game 3, a factor that helped them kill off four Colorado power-play chances in the first period.

"Sure, they played with desperation (Wednesday) night, and that's how every game should be," Hartley said. "That's why we didn't win. It's plain and simple. We were not desperate."

Players looked back to the ugly first period, when they had ample opportunity to put San Jose away for good.

"That definitely was the difference," center Joe Sakic said. "We get four in a row and then all of a sudden they get one and they score on it."

Goaltender Patrick Roy, who had 29 saves in Game 3, said the Avs let a great opportunity slip past.

"It's too bad we let that go," he said. "We worked so hard over there to get those wins."

But as Roy suspects, too many players may have settled into a comfort zone, buoyed by that 2-0 series lead and the promise of home ice, however ratty it might be. Defenseman Adam Foote had to agree.

"What we did have was frustration, I think, early on," he said. "They came after us and we struggled. It seemed like from there on we tried to do a little bit too much.

"We made it overcomplicated and got more frustrated, tried to play catch-up hockey and got burned."

Roy, however, didn't seem too worried about the Avs' situation heading into today's Game 4.

"I thought we didn't play a very good game, yet we were still in the game," he said. "It was a 1-1 game after 40 minutes, without playing good hockey. I guess if we bring our best game, I like our chances."